Browse Items: 23

"Square dancing evolved a western version probably sometime in the late 1800s when the pioneers moved to settle the states west of the Mississippi. It was a square dance form that was much different from the Eastern Quadrilles and different still from the Kentucky Running Set which was probably the other source. It was more exuberant and much less…

Pam McKeever is the caller; the dancers are demonstrating a routine like that used by Lloyd Shaw's Cheyenne Mountain Dancers in the late 1930s and 1940s. You'll note a series of dramatic aerial figures that helped make the Cheyenne dancers such a sensation as they toured the country. The musicians are Brendan Doyle, banjo; Chris Romaine, fiddle;…

John Bradford was 13 years old in 1947 when his mother, Mary Jo Bradford, took their family to attend Lloyd Shaw's summer class in square dancing. (He and his sister were the only two teenagers allowed in the class, other than members of Shaw's Cheyenne Mountain Dancers.)

The author explains, "This was presented as a morning talk at the 1997…

Mary Jo Bradford was a physical education teacher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when she encountered Lloyd Shaw and the Cheyenne Mountain Dancers in 1946. That summer, she traveled to Colorado Springs to study with Shaw, and the following summer she returned with her two teenage children.

Article published in 1940, profiling Lloyd Shaw and his Cheyenne Mountain Dancers.

"One of the most colorful and enthusiastic of the square dance revivalists is Dr. Lloyd Shaw, principal of the Cheyenne Mountain public school, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he has inspired into being twenty-five different square dance groups. Most of them…

Recorded at the 25th National Square Dance Convention, Anaheim, CA. This is the third part of the square dance history pageant, which was dedicated to Mrs. Shaw, the widow of Lloyd "Pappy" Shaw. Here she speaks briefly of Lloyd Shaw and his work.

The 25th annual National Square Dance Convention took place in 1976, the year of the United State Bicentennial Celebration. A historical pageant at the convention features a series of dances illustrating American social dance through time, with a particular focus on squares. After a series of earlier historical dances (see related item), the…

This is part 2 of 5, four audio clips and one video that present a History and Heritage session about Lloyd "Pappy" Shaw, recorded at the 1989 CALLERLAB convention. Participants on the panel were Bob Osgood, chair; Herb Egender, a member of Shaw's Cheyenne Mountain Dancers in 1939, and Bob Howell, Ohio dance caller. This audio clip presents…

This newspaper account describes the enthusiastic reception given the Cheyenne Mountain Dancers when they performed at Swarthmore College (PA). This was the second stop on the dancers' inaugural trip east; they first appeared at the National Folk Festival in Washington, DC, before heading north to Swarthmore, New York University, Bennington…

Third in a series of three silent films made to accompany Shaw's 1947 recordings with the "Duel in the Sun" Orchestra. Working from an incomplete copy of the footage, we have attempted to create an approximate synchronization of video to audio. As far as we know, these are the only moving images of the Cheyenne Mountain Dancers doing complete…

Second in a series of three silent films made to accompany Shaw's 1947 recordings with the "Duel in the Sun" Orchestra. Working from an incomplete copy of the footage, we have attempted to create an approximate synchronization of video to audio. As far as we know, these are the only moving images of the Cheyenne Mountain Dancers doing complete…

First in a series of three silent films made to accompany Shaw's 1947 recordings with the "Duel in the Sun" Orchestra. Working from an incomplete copy of the footage, we have attempted to create an approximate synchronization of video to audio. As far as we know, these are the only moving images of the Cheyenne Mountain Dancers doing complete…

In the wake of the first trips by the Cheyenne Mountain Dancers, this 1941 article inThe Saturday Evening Post describesthe widespread passion for squares that is growing, and gives Lloyd Shaw credit for the revival:
Quoted material follows:
Somewhere in your community there's a square dance tonight. At your country club, in a hotel ballroom,…

The caller featured here is Ray Smith; we have not yet identified the fiddler and piano player. By 1960, Al "Tex" Brownlee was the caller and he used recorded music.Dancers:Couple 1: Dave Chandler and Edie Vecqueray (Edie was a Cheyenne Mtn. Dancer with Pappy)Couple 2: John Bradford and Dolly MayerCouple 3: Max Smith and Diane Smith (not…

Herb Egender was a member of Lloyd "Pappy" Shaw's legendary square dance demonstration team, the Cheyenne Mountain Dancers. This footage of his recollections of that experience was recorded by Cal Campbell at the 2004 CALLERLAB convention in Reno, Nevada. Other speakers on the History Panel were Jim Mayo and Jon Jones.